Free and Equal Elections: Repeal the Incumbent Protection Act!
Article 1, Section 5 of the Pennsylvania Constitution:
Elections shall be free and equal; and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage.
Zero ≠ 67,070.
Pennsylvania's election laws are neither free nor equal, especially for state-wide race such as Governor and US Senate. This year, to qualify for the November ballot, Democrats & Republicans are not required to submit any signatures to the department of state. Independent candidates and established challenger parties were required to submit 67,070 valid signatures from registered voters to appear on the same ballot.
As a result, Pennsylvanians will have few choices on election day. PA Clean Sweep founder and independent gubernatorial candidate, Russ Diamond (www.russdiamond.org) collected "only" 38,000 signatures and did not qualify. The Libertarian Party and the Constitution Party also failed to meet the 67,070 signature requirement and are banned from the statewide ballot. Although the Green Party submitted over 90,000 signatures, their ballot position is far from guaranteed as the Democrat Party puts their full legal might behind an effort to have them disqualified. As a result, the Green gubernatorial candidate has withdrawn from the race do to a lack of legal defense funds and fear of being severely fined for the court cost.
That's right, if less than 67,070 signatures are ruled to be valid, the Green candidates could be held liable for $100,000 or more in court fees. According to Richard Winger of Ballot Access News (www.ballot-access.org), "The petition challenge procedure in Pennsylvania is unlike that in any other state. If a candidate whose petition is challenged does not withdraw, and the procedure ends up showing that the petition didn’t have enough signatures, the candidate is liable for the costs of the challenge. In 2004, Ralph Nader submitted twice as many signatures as were required in Pennsylvania, but the challenge process determined that he didn’t have enough valid signatures. As a result, he was required by the Commonwealth Court to pay $85,000."
It is unclear if Pennsylvania will have any statewide candidates from the challenger parties. There are some court cases pending, but prospects for voter choice are poor this year. The blame lies squarely on the Pennsylvania Legislature, who failed to pass the Voters' Choice Act. This legislation was drafted by the Pennsylvania Ballot Access Coalition (www.paballotaccess.org) to restore free and equal elections in Pennsylvania. It was effectively blocked by the Republican controlled State Government Committee in an effort to maintain the status quo and shield the old corrupt parties from competition.
Pennsylvania in Crisis
Clearly, Pennsylvania is in crisis, yet our incumbent law makers are most concerned about increasing their pay and keeping new ideas out of the political arena. They actually claim "ballot clutter" would be a bigger problem for Pennsylvanians than our sky-high property taxes, stagnant economy and failing schools. Their arrogance is astounding.
To turn thing around, we need to replace the current gang of career legislators with a group of citizen willing to defend the Pennsylvania Constitution and restore free and equal elections.
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